Search arXiv⌕ Search

arXiv · 2609.38508

Relativistic Spherical Accretion in Nonrotating Black Hole Spacetimes: Astrophysical Implications

Abstract

We present a systematic analysis of spherically symmetric accretion flows onto thirteen non-rotating black hole spacetimes, including charged and regular black holes, scalar and dilaton fields, dark energy, cosmological constants, modified gravity, and parametrized metrics. We generalize the Michel solution to arbitrary diagonal spacetimes and investigate the density, temperature, velocity, Mach number, mass accretion rate, and bremsstrahlung luminosity equilibrium profiles. Using the Schwarzschild solution as a reference, we find significant deviations in the accretion flow, with cosmological-constant and dark-energy models strongly suppressing accretion, while regular and Yukawa-like spacetimes generally enhance it. We provide fitting formulas for the accretion rates and luminosities as functions of the spacetime parameters. We then explore two astrophysical applications: accretion onto supermassive black holes, such as Sgr A* and M87*, and the inferred progenitor masses of the intermediate-mass black holes associated with the GW190521 gravitational wave event. We find that observational uncertainties may allow us to probe signatures of deviations from the Schwarzschild spacetime.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

David Barrero-González, Alejandro Cruz-Osorio. 2026-09-29. Relativistic Spherical Accretion in Nonrotating Black Hole Spacetimes: Astrophysical Implications. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.38508

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Double Neutron Star Mergers and Fast Blue Optical Transients: A Circumbinary Disk Connection

Post-common-envelope evolution (CEE) circumbinary disks (CBDs) form when part of the ejected envelope remains bound and circularizes around the stripped core and its companion. Leveraging results of scale-free hydrodynamical simulations, we develop a framework to model the effect of such disks on subsequent binary evolution, and implement it in the population synthesis code COMPAS. Applying our framework to double neutron star (DNS) merger progenitors, we find that CBDs generally induce substantial orbital shrinkage, changing the merging DNS population and lowering the overall merger rate. We explore an extensive grid of binary-evolution and disk models, and find that CBD interactions reduce the DNS merger rate by up to $28\%$, primarily through 'premature' mergers between the neutron star (NS) and the giant's core. These mergers may power luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs), occurring at a fiducial rate of $\simeq11 \:\rm Gpc^{-3} \rm yr^{-1}$. Our results indicate that natal kicks contribute little to LFBOT offsets, and that they should be associated with young stellar populations, though not necessarily active star-forming regions. Since LFBOT progenitors would otherwise produce short-delay DNS mergers, CBDs further challenge DNS mergers as the source of early r-process enrichment. For surviving DNS mergers, accretion from the disk leads to higher chirp masses, potentially explaining the puzzling mass of GW190425. Our framework provides a general tool for studying CBD-binary interactions in post-CEE systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

High precision timing of seven binary millisecond pulsars with the European Pulsar Timing Array

Binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) serve as exceptional astrophysical laboratories for a wide range of astrophysical studies, all of which rely on precise property measurements allowed by pulsar timing. In this paper, we present high-precision timing solutions for seven binary MSPs monitored by the European Pulsar Timing Array. By combining data collected from the five largest radio telescopes in Europe, as well as their coherently combined form, the Large European Array for Pulsars, we achieve phase-coherent timing solutions for all seven pulsars. We conduct a Bayesian timing and noise analysis on the combined data, yielding measurements of astrometric and orbital parameters with broadly improved precision, some reported for the first time. For PSRs J0125-2327, J1741+1351 and J2043+1711, we determine their distances and transverse velocities from astrometric measurements, and infer their masses via Shapiro delay measurements. Additionally, we examine the various contributions to the secular orbital-period variations for PSRs J0125-2327, J1125+7819 and J1741+1351, and estimate their kinematic distances. For PSRs J0125-2327 and J1741+1351, we detect the signature of annual-orbital parallax in the timing data. This allows us to derive a strongly favored, unique solution for the orbital ascending node and inclination angle for PSR J0125-2327, and a tightly constrained ascending node for PSR J1741+1351. Moreover, we use the orbital periods and their derivatives for several binary MSPs to place upper limits on gravitational-wave strain in both the sub-nanohertz and microhertz frequency regimes. Our results show that the orbits of binary MSPs could provide stringent constraints in microhertz range, thereby possibly complementing standard pulsar-timing-array analyses in the future.

astro-ph.HE↗

The Influence of the Inclination of the Accretion Disk in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries on the Energy Spectrum Characteristics

During the ascending and descending phases of some black hole X-ray binaries(BH XRBs), it was found that the X-ray Eddington ratio ($ L_{X-ray(3-25keV)}/L_{Edd} $) and the photon spectral index $Γ$ had an anticorrelation when the X-ray Eddington ratio was less than a specific value, and a positive correlation when it was greater than that value. Moreover, the cross points of the anticorrelation and positive correlation are different for different BH XRBs ($ L_{X-ray(3-25keV)}/L_{Edd} $ of cross point is between $ 0.1 \% $ and $ 10\% $). The reason why the cross points are different for different BH XRBs were still uncertain. So we processed the light curve and energy spectrum of 15 outbursts of eight BH XRBs during their descending phases. We found that for the same BH XRB, the values of the X-ray Eddington ratio at the cross point are basically consistent for different outburst times. However, for different BH XRBs, there is a positive linear correlation between the X-ray Eddington ratio at the cross point and the cosine of the accretion disk inclination. Therefore, We think that the geometric effect of the inclination has a significant impact on the evolution of the energy spectrum of the BH XRBs.

astro-ph.HE↗